The Sacramento State men’s golf team rallied from behind to capture its second-straight Sacramento State Invitational team championship on March 8 at Valley Hi Country Club in Sacramento.

Sac State entered Tuesday two strokes behind Campbell University for first place and ended the tournament with a commanding 11-stroke lead thanks in large part to a 16-under-par performance in the third round.

This dominance resulted in a team score of 272, which is tied for the second best round in Sac State history. Overall the Hornets finished with a score of 851 (292-287-272), which also ties a program record for the third lowest finish in school history.

Sac State was followed by Campbell with a three-round total of 862 (289-288-285), Cal State Fullerton with 880 (298-299-283), Weber State with 888 (304-294-290) and British Columbia with a team finish of 893 (299-299-295) to round off the top five teams.

History was also captured when junior Aaron Beverly won first place in the tournament after trailing by three strokes against Felix Mory of Cal State Northridge to begin the day. This marks the second-straight year where a Hornet has finished first in the fourth annual Sac State Invitational and is Beverly’s first outright victory.

Beverly helped lead the Hornets to victory by completing a career best score of 64 (8-under-par) in round three and a total 54-hole finish of 207 (74-69-64,) which breaks his previous best of 208 at the Itani Quality Hornes Collegiate and Nick Watney Invitational in 2015.

The Hornets also received contributions from their two lone seniors in Taylor Knoll (72-73-70), who tied for fourth place in the tournament with a score of 215 and Owen Taylor (71-76-69-216), who finished tied for sixth place.

The seniors were followed by former Big Sky Men’s Golfer of the Week and freshman Landon Azevedo as he finished the tournament as an individual (73-75-69-217) in 10th place.

The rest of the lineup concluded with sophomore Zach Liberatore (75-75-69-219) bouncing back to tie for 12th place, junior Robert Parden (75-70-76-221) cracking the top 15 and juniors Connor Day (74-73-79-226) and Cody Bates (78-83-73-234) placing 26th and 52nd as individuals, respectively.

Sac State will make a quick turnaround on March 11 and 12 as the Hornets prepare for the Border Olympics Golf Tournament in Laredo, Texas.